Most nuclear plans on track outside Japan, Germany

FILE - In this April 10 file image taken by T-Hawk drone aircraft and released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the aerial view shows the damaged reactor building of Unit 4, left, of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. Japan and Germany are limiting or phasing out reliance on nuclear power after the Fukushima accident _ moves that could raise petroleum prices _ but most of the rest of the world is undaunted in its pursuit of nuclear energy. (AP Photo/Tokyo Electric Power Co.,File) EDITORIAL USE ONLY
— AP

FILE - In this April 10 file image taken by T-Hawk drone aircraft and released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the aerial view shows the damaged reactor building of Unit 4, left, of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. Japan and Germany are limiting or phasing out reliance on nuclear power after the Fukushima accident _ moves that could raise petroleum prices _ but most of the rest of the world is undaunted in its pursuit of nuclear energy. (AP Photo/Tokyo Electric Power Co.,File) EDITORIAL USE ONLY
/ AP

It is accelerating a 25-year plan to phase out nuclear energy. Now the country's leaders seem determined to reach that goal as early as 2020. Chancellor Angela Merkel, a previous proponent of nuclear energy, said Tuesday that Fukushima had changed her attitude.

Japan, like Germany, is a developed nation with strict safety rules, but "nevertheless there was a chain of events that wasn't expected," she said. And while Germany isn't prone to quakes or tsunamis, it could fall victim to events "we didn't previously view as likely or possible," Merkel said.

Elsewhere, anxiety over the Fukushima accident has contributed to anti-nuclear protests in India, Taiwan and Turkey.

The crisis has shaken Tokyo's faith in nuclear energy, which provided 30 percent of the nation's electricity.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan announced Tuesday that Japan will scrap its plans to raise that to 50 percent by 2030. He said the government also will promote renewable energy such as solar and wind and further step up conservation.

Japan - already grappling with electricity shortages with several nuclear plants taken off line - is likely to turn to oil and natural gas to meet the energy shortfall. That could mean higher energy prices globally, several experts said.

"They're not going to get the missing pieces from wind and air and other renewables and they're not going to get it from conservation," said Richard Samuels, head of MIT's Center for International Studies and the founder of its Japan Program. "They're going to have to fill in the missing pieces with liquefied natural gas and with oil. ... We should expect it to have an inflationary effect in Japan and maybe globally."

Samuels and Granger Morgan, head of the engineering and public policy program at Carnegie Mellon University, predicted that the Fukushima accident could slow but not stop the nuclear energy renaissance.

"I just don't see how the world continues without nuclear as part of the portfolio," Morgan said. "It looks like a few years until we get back on an even keel as a result of this."

In Mexico, Japan's crisis has not put a halt to plans being studied to add six new reactors to the two it has, said Ricardo Cordoba, deputy director of nuclear security at the Federal Electricity Commission. Nuclear energy should still be considered a clean source of power, he said.

And Iran says it is determined to build a 20-reactor nuclear network across the country, one of the most earthquake-prone in the world.

In the U.S., nuclear energy remains a key priority for the Obama administration as part of a "diversified energy mix" that includes solar and wind power, said Department of Energy spokeswoman Stephanie Mueller.

But the crisis in Japan did contribute to a decision last month by Princeton, New Jersey-based NRG Energy to write down its $481 million investment in two planned nuclear reactors in South Texas. One of NRG's partners was to be Tokyo Electric Power Co., the Japanese utility that owns the Fukushima complex and is likely on the hook for enormous compensation.